The invention relates to the technical field of farm-produce machines for the continuous production of calibrated pieces, for example in diced form.
Machines designed, in particular, for processing pieces of meat are known, these being equipped with means for cutting them along a plurality of vertical and horizontal planes in order to obtain pieces of reduced thickness. In general, these machines use a cutting system employing a first grid composed of plurality of vertical blades and a second juxtaposed grid composed of a plurality of horizontal blades. A rotary blade arranged laterally makes a cut in an orthogonal plane in relation to these grids in order to form calibrated pieces. This state of the art may be illustrated, as a non-limiting indication, by the teaching of the patent FR 2,651,167, of which the applicant of the present document is likewise the proprietor.
Essentially, the machine described in this patent comprises a chamber or enclosure delimiting a closed volume intended for receiving the product to be sliced. One of the ends of the enclosure cooperates with a pusher member in order to ensure that the product is displaced linearly in the direction of the cutting system which is shaped so as to produce the calibrated dice or pieces of meat. The food product to be processed may have various shapes at the outset.
For example, this product may consist of a slice of meat of greater or lesser thickness. In this case, the enclosure delimits a volume corresponding very substantially to that of the slice, a presser member making it possible to adjust the volume of the enclosure as a function of the thickness of the slice.
Or else the product may consist of a block of meat or the like delimiting a large volume which is usually of parallelepipedic shape. Consequently, the enclosure of the machine delimits a volume of general parallelepipedic shape, making it possible to carry out the centering and guidance of the product to be cut under the conditions mentioned above. It is, indeed, very important that the product in the form of a block can be constantly guided and centered during its displacement in the direction of the cutting and preslicing systems in order to obtain calibrated pieces having a suitable appearance, which, at the same time, are prevented from being shredded in the region of the cutting blades. In view of the parallelepipedic shape of the block of meat or the like to be processed, this centering and guidance in the enclosure do not present any particular problem.
By contrast, this enclosure can receive only a very specific type of product which, in any event, must have a parallelepipedic or generally parallelepipedic overall volume. It is therefore not possible for a food product in the form of a block delimiting a different volume, in particular cylindrical, to be processed under good conditions. Increasingly, then, food products are either in the form of a parallelepipedic block or in the form of a cylindrical block.
In the light of this, it seemed important to have the possibility of processing any type of block of meat or the like on the same machine, for the purpose of obtaining perfectly calibrated cut pieces under very good conditions. In particular, it was necessary to solve the problem presented by the constant guidance and centering of the product when the latter is not parallelepipedic, but has a general cylindrical shape.
The problem which the invention proposes to solve, therefore, is to have the possibility of processing, on the same machine, a food product which delimits a general volume of any shape, the aim being to obtain perfectly calibrated cut pieces, whatever this shape may be.